FROM AWAY

Thanks for the article, "Destroyers into Windmills: A statewide campaign kicks off this week to convert Maine’s military manufacturing into environmentally sustainable industry for the future" [by Christie Toth, April 1].

Did it every occur to any of you that the adamant opposition by Senators Snowe and Collins and Congressmen Allen and Michaud to everything the President and Republican congressional leaders want to do to improve the US economy might have something to do with the drop in defense contracts flowing to Maine?

As long as your delegation keeps fighting to expand the federal government and send more tax dollars to Washington, the people of Maine shouldn’t expect great sympathy from the rest of the country.

By the way, your hope for a rescue from "renewable" or "sustainable" energy is about as naive as one can get. Is there anyone left in Maine political circles that understands economics, technology and benefit-cost analysis?

Glenn Schleede

Round Hill, VA

SEE YA, ALEX

Funny thing. Press Herald exec Charles (Please Call Me Chuck) Cochrane once told me he never reads the Phoenix.

But whenever Alex Irvine wrote about that paper and me, Press Herald lawyers were all over me like a wet suit.

Hmmmmm. I know Chuck and Jeannine Guttman, she of the corner office ovah theyah, join me in wishing Irvine well in his new stead. The University of Maine’s faculty’s gain is our loss down here in the town that read Irvine faithfully — admittedly or not.

Ted Cohen

Defrocked Press Herald scribe

South Portland